HIVES FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 
I2I 
It is most important that the hive roof should be 
absolutely watertight : the slow drip from melting snow 
has ruined many a colony. In the event of a cover, 
through alternate swelling and shrinking, proving 
refractory, a cure may be thus made : Remove 
external battens, should such exist. Then, after dry- 
ing, paint thickly, and cover with unbleached calico, 
tacking it at its edges, so as to remove all creases. 
Now apply paint upon the calico also, until it is 
soaked, when it will dry firmly adherent to the roof, 
which will give no further trouble. The cottager with 
slender purse, and with rude hive cover, may water- 
proof the latter with little outlay, by first coating it with 
hot pitch, over which he evenly spreads a sheet of 
newspaper. The application of a hot iron, used 
after the manner of the laundress, remelts the pitch, 
incorporating it completely both with wood and 
paper: all 'cracks are thus closed, and the cover made 
absolutely rainproof for several seasons ; I have 
seen such in good condition after ten years’ duty. 
This plan may even be applied to home-made hive 
bodies, the wood of which may be faulty, and the 
carpentry not of the most finished description. These 
processes must not be despised, although not aesthetic, 
for by such occasionally the poor man may be 
induced to enter upon better methods than those of 
his forefathers. 
One caution is needed with regard to home-made 
hives. The body has the grain of the wood horizontal. 
If the wood be brought down, when green, to the 
correct depth, shrinkage will almost certainly lessen 
disastrously the bee-space beneath the frames. No 
